


Skin

by Pandora_Imperatrix



Category: New Teen Titans, Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Celestials a DicKory Zine, Character Study, DickKory Zine, F/M, Kory centric, RobStar, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, dickkory - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandora_Imperatrix/pseuds/Pandora_Imperatrix
Summary: Koriand'r always wondered to whom the alien words that branded her skin belonged to.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r
Comments: 1
Kudos: 63





	Skin

It was only three quarters into Koriand’r’s birth year, when she saw them for the first time: strange markings curling around her left wrist like a snake. It was like they were born with her even though only moments before her wrist was bare. Komand’r made fun of her, told her the marks were a curse and that she was doomed a terrible fate. Her mother chastised Komand’r and told Koriand’r to not listen to her sister who just added the episode to her long list of woes. For a while, the King and the Queen even developed an interest on the strange markings on their younger daughter. They took Koriand’r to wisemen and high priestesses and found out the scar-like scribblings were a very rare occurrence, the mark of a soul teared in half by X’hal.

Ancient Tamaranean legends spoke about those touched by the stars. Some said it was a blessing, some would say it was a curse, but both agreed on the narrative that, noticing that some souls were too big to habit only one body, X’hal divided those souls in two. Yet, being a fair goddess, she made it so they could meet before the joining of all souls on her great fire. Every time someone with half of a divided soul was born, the first words their other half would say to them would appear on their skin. The Priestesses who believed of the markings were a blessing promised that when the princess found her other half she would meet great fortune, but the old monks preached that if the goddess divided them was to save them from a horrible doom. 

The King and the Queen became curious about whom could possibly be the bearer of the other half of their daughter’s soul. Being Koriand’r highborn, maybe they would also be of noble birth. Choosing to believe their daughter was blessed and not cursed, they tried to find meaning for the words on her wrist in hopes to find the princess’ missing soulmate. But the markings were so alien, they couldn’t find anything in the ancient scriptures and alien databases. Soon, the novelty faded and more important Estate matters appeared taking their focus from the silly writings on the child. However, to Koriand’r, the mystery had never lost its appeal, and every time she was laying on her bed, she would hold her hand high and the words “We’ll get out of here. Believe me ~~.~~ ” would gleam under the light of Tamaran’s twin moons.

Later, when she was sold and enslaved the habit didn’t disappear. She traced the words sometimes, when she was feeling alone and worthless, under her body not the rich silks of her childhood, but dirt rags that she had to share with other poor souls enduring captivity. There was no sky where they kept her, no window to let moonlight pass through. But she would touch the markings with her fingers, marvelling at the fact that they took so much from her, but there was still something that remained, something that made her special, that brought her hope. Somewhere, probably across the stars was her soulmate and, even though she had no idea of whom they could possibly be, she swore the could feel the pull, the ache, the yearning to be together again, and that was what kept her going.

When she finally heard the words she still had no idea of what they meant, but the sound of them burned her wrist finally breaking her from her stupor and readying her to battle again. She was in the arms of some boy, an alien boy. He smelled like dust, salt and something sweet and familiar, he was talking fast with someone else, not noticing that she was awake until she screamed to alert that more Gordonians were coming. She blasted them with her starbolts, still in his arms. For some crazy reason she felt safe there, like she belonged. It was something she hadn’t felt in years. So safe that even thought they were in middle of the battle, she wasn’t able to fight the next fainting spell that came, overcoming her senses and making her fall asleep again.

She awakes, so many Earth years after, now that she can understand the words on her wrist, now that she can hear his voice saying them in her mind even though she knows it can’t possibly be a memory from that exact instant. She doesn’t need it to be. As she has his first words to her trapped on her skin, she has his voice locked in her chest. She swallowed it the first time they kissed, and she wonders if it was more than language he transferred to her. With words and grammar, the pieces of their severed souls connected in just one free act of fate.

She reaches for him across the bed, his face half hidden in the crook of his folded arms, soft pieces of inky hair falling around his furrowed brow as he dreams of heroic battles and triumphant victories. She holds his hand in hers, kissing it tenderly without waking him, breathes in that familiar sweet smell that now she knows it’s just him. There it is, on his calloused palm. He told her once, his blue eyes crinkling on the edges with a smile that didn’t seem able to leave his kiss-bruised lips when he has her where he wants. And he told her that when he was little, his parents used to think it was a scar from his many falls as an avid little acrobat apprentice. Sometimes, he asks her to say it out loud, even though he knows it only means “beware.” Sometimes, she sees him looking at where it should be under his glove, and the way he looks at her when he catches her watching can fly her to the stars or nail her to the ground. “Beware.” She wonders if it was a warning she sent to herself.

She traces the writing with the tip of her finger, admiring how beautiful her mother language’s writing is, and how perfectly if fits on the skin of a boy that can’t even pronounce its basic words. She tried to teach him, but them being so young and so in love would always turn their Tamaranean language lessons into Tamaranean and Human comparative anatomy.

She told him about the legends, about X’hal and how their souls would join together on her great fire one day. Dick had a very different set of beliefs than Koriand’r’s and, one day, he even broke her heart a little saying that he didn’t like the idea of having his destiny planned out from birth by the heavens like he was a puppet of fate. But, sometimes, he joked about how they were destined to meet, and that he was lucky to have a reminder on his skin that a princess fallen from the skies belonged to him. When he said those things she felt her heart inflate like a balloon, and it was not rare when the joy would lift her up quite literally and they would go for romantic strolling among the stars that orchestrated their meeting. And he always, always kissed her wrist so tenderly when they made love, paying attention to each of his words marking her golden skin as if he was thanking them for bringing her to him.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my contribution to Celestials a DickKoryZine AKA THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ZINE EVER!!!
> 
> It arrived today and it’s so pretty you guys, I’m crying rn TT0TT


End file.
